Report says cities criminalize homeless

Police officers search parts of the San Diego river for homeless people who have taken up residence near the waterway. Officer John Horvath wakes a sleeping transient who had an outstanding arrest warrant on his record.
Christian Rodas

Police officers search parts of the San Diego river for homeless people who have taken up residence near the waterway. Officer John Horvath wakes a sleeping transient who had an outstanding arrest warrant on his record.

WASHINGTON, DC  More cities throughout the nation are adopting laws targeting homeless people without providing long-term solutions to help them, according to new report that cites El Cajon as an example of a city that treats homelessness like a crime.

The report was created by the Washington, D.C.-based National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, a nonprofit advocacy group that surveyed 187 cities about their policies on homelessness. San Diego and El Cajon were among the cities surveyed.

Tristia Bauman, a senior attorney for the center, said many laws that target the homeless are ineffective and often push people to neighboring cities or recycle them through the criminal justice system and back onto the street.

In El Cajon, almost 52 percent of homeless people don’t have access to shelter, but the city restricts or bans sleeping in public, camping in public, begging in public and sleeping in vehicles, according to the report.

Bauman said being ticketed can create significant setbacks for homeless people, who may have their cars and possessions impounded, making it more difficult to find work and shelter.

“A criminal conviction on a record can prevent someone from obtaining a housing subsidy or low-skill, low-paying job,” she said. “Essentially, they are creating a scenario where they make the problem worse.”

San Diego laws cited in the report prohibit sleeping in public places, obstructing public right-of-ways and sleeping in cars.

A police officer who works with homeless people in San Diego said such laws are necessary and can even be used to encourage homeless people to get the help they need.

Sgt. Teresa Clark, with the San Diego Police Department’s homeless outreach team, said laws that restrict sleeping outdoors and blocking walkways are needed, but usually are only enforced when people are uncooperative.

“Compassionate enforcement is what we’re calling it,” she said.

The center has surveyed the same cities since 2009. The latest report says more than half those cities have ordinances that restrict or prohibit sitting or lying down in public, a 43 percent increase since the report was last done in 2011.

The largest jump was a 119 percent increase in the number of laws prohibiting people from living in vehicles, said Bauman. She said some of those laws could be unconstitutional, as demonstrated just last month when a federal appeals court struck down a Los Angeles law prohibiting people from sleeping in cars.

The report also includes positive steps cities are taking, such as a homeless outreach team run by the Houston Police Department. It didn’t mention the San Diego outreach team.

Clark said San Diego’s laws against sleeping in public and blocking sidewalks are not enforced by the outreach team on a daily basis, but are there when needed.

“It’s kind of a process,” she said about enforcement. “We look for voluntary compliance. If somebody is in the same spot every day, their tent tends to grow in size. We tell them to pack light, keep it mobile.”